No one will argue that as a parent, the greatest fear is finding out that your child is missing. The same applies to the child who has been abducted. The subject of missing children is not one that parents or children like to think about, but it is a reality of everyday life. Even with the best parental care some children still go missing.
Child abductions are not uncommon in the United States. According to the FBI's National Crime Information Center, there were 876,213 missing person reports in the year 2000. Out of those entries, nearly 85 to 90% were juveniles. Every day, 2100 children are reported missing in the United States. The number of missing persons reported to the police has increased by 1% from 1999 to 2000. That may not seem like a lot, but since 1982, the total increase is 468%. Every 40 seconds a child becomes missing or has been abducted in the United States.
Children and juveniles who are abducted suffer during and after their capture. These damages include the alteration to their appearance such as cut and dyed hair. The abducted child's name is often changed, with young children sometimes never knowing their true identity. The child is stripped of his true identity. He loses out on the love of his left-behind family and his roots. The abducted child is often medically and physically neglected as abductors have the worry that the child may be discovered to be missing. Abducted children receive unstable schooling as moves for them are common and getting proper paperwork to schools to enroll the child can be difficult under a new name. Abducted children have unstable living conditions as they are on the run from the law, and often end up homeless or moving frequently. Abducted children are often told lies about the abduction and the left-behind parent. They can form a false hatred for the left-behind parents and family. Sometimes they are even told the left-behind parents or family is dead, in jail, or doesn't want them.
